


These Moments

by sceawere



Series: 'These Moments' Verse aka John OC Family Verse [1]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Children, Domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 22:40:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21005324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sceawere/pseuds/sceawere
Summary: Things that make me happy: John Shelby being alive, John Shelby having a happy life, John Shelby being a good husband and father.Things this fic has: all of that.-“Yes, John” You reached out your free hand to pull his chin up towards you “You’re a good dad. These kids adore you. I adore you”“They adore the man who runs the bloody sweet shop” he argued, eyes still searching.“That man doesn’t keep them fed and clothed and loved, though, does he? He doesn’t know which teddy is their favourite and what story to read them. He would probably shout at them if they coloured in his books, not teach them business skills. He wouldn’t buckle Katie’s new red shoes for her and race the boys down the street and back. He might let them win sometimes, though”“Arthur never let me win and it made a man of me” he nodded solemly.“You keep telling yourself that, honey” you scrunched your nose at him and he smiled a little. That soft little smile that made you forget just who your husband was, what he did. These moments here, with you and him, and your babies. In the warmth of your room, the softness of your sheets, the touch of his skin.





	These Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a request for John Domestic Fluff Goodness in 2017. This is the fic that started a (much bigger) verse of fics, which will be uploaded in turn. Enjoy!

You marched down the street, half angry, half exhausted. Groups of kids were running up and down and you cast an eye out to check whether any of yours were there. Men tipped their caps to you as you passed and you barged your shoulder into Polly’s front door, slamming it behind you.

“I got fucking fired, didn’t I?” you fumed.

Polly eyed you over her newspaper, her expression not budging an inch as she took in your agitated state. “Lovely to see you too, sweetheart. Sit yourself down. Kettle’s just boiled, you can explain yourself”

You huffed, yanking your scarf off and chucking it over the back of a chair.

“Thanks Pol. Where’s the kids?” you sniffed.

“John’s got them”

You paused, eyes moving to her quickly. “John’s got them?”

Polly cast a look up to you as she brewed the pot and smirked when she saw your confused look.

“He was showing Katie her numbers and the rest wouldn’t let them be, you know what they’re like” she waved over he shoulder.

“Sorry, no, go back – John’s got the kids? By himself?”

She chuckled to herself and slid a cup over to you.

“Sit yourself down. And explain” she tapped the table.

You took a deep breath, gathered yourself, and slumped down into a chair.

“Fucking prick of a boss, weren’t it?” you explained.

“Fucking hell, what did he do now?”

“Don’t Pol. It’s done, its fine” you shook your head.

“If he was putting hands to you-“

“No, nothing like that”

“I told you when you started working for him-“

You rolled your eyes, bringing the cup to your mouth. “Yes, Pol, I know. You’re a bloody fucking oracle. We’re all in awe”

“Watch the way you speak to me” she warned.

“Or what? I’m too bloody big for you to put me over your knee anymore”

“You’re never too bloody big for a slap”

You smiled at each other. Polly had been looking out for you ever since your own mother died. You’d asked her once why she had taken you in the way she did, as lovely a woman as she was to her family, she wasn’t the type of person you expect to take in strays out of the goodness of her heart.

She’d told you it was a mix of her being a daughterless mother, you a motherless daughter, and ‘I never forgot the first time John told me about you’. Apparently he’d come back from school one day, Polly aghast that he’d been in the first place, and told her he needed to borrow one of her rings so he could propose to you. He was 7.

‘_He went to school for me? John?’_

‘_He went to bloody school for you. That’s how I knew you were something special’_

John had proposed, albeit 10 years later, and you were married and expecting soon after. 4 kids later and here you were.

“He was chatting shit about John and the lads, that’s all, and I…flipped” you continued your explanation.

“What was he saying?”

You grumbled to yourself and took a big sip of tea.

“He’s been at me ever since I was last pregnant, ‘taking so much time to have all these children’” you mimicked his voice and Polly smiled at you again, “I know for a fact he has a mistress with little ones of her own, so he can fuck right off with that. At least I’m married to my kids’ dad. We might be prolific but at least we do it by the book, eh?”

“Amen” she agreed.

You leant forward, swirling a drop of moisture around on the tabletop.

“Anyway, I fucked up a bit of paperwork. I was so tired I just fudged the numbers a bit and when he found out he starts shouting at me in front of all the other girls, saying I did it on purpose. That I’m probably skimming money to give to my criminal husband and his dodgy brothers and all this shit. And then he put a name to my kids, calling ‘em grubby and shit and I just…punched him. Out cold”

Polly burst out laughing, head flung back, nearly splashing tea everywhere and you shook your head.

“Oh, sweetheart”

“Anyway, I can stay home with my grubby kids now can’t I? Give ‘em baths for days” you frowned as the insult settled into your skin.

“You don’t listen to him, you’re the best bloody mother I’ve seen. Those kids want for nothing” she tapped your hand, and you turned it over, clutching hers in yours.

“Thanks, Pol. They’ll be wanting for bloody me though, after John’s been at ‘em”

“He does his best”

“He’s a bloody kid himself, I shudder to think what they’re up to. He needs supervision, I tell you. I let him give them their tea the other night - he started a bloody food fight with them. There’s still egg down the back of my cupboards, the fucking nuisance”

She smiled to herself. “I’ll send someone round to clean it up”

“Nah, I’m gonna need summat to do with my days now”

-

“They all down?” you asked as John re-entered the room, this time without two kids hanging off his arms.

“For now”

You were propped up in bed feeding the baby when John trundled in and starting stripping down.

“Polly said you were teaching Katie her numbers today?”

“Yeah, I found her crayoning on the books trying to add up” he mimicked a scribble in the air, and you both laughed to each other, looking down to check on the baby.

“What were the rest of ‘em doing?’

He crawled over and lay down turned towards you, propping his arm over your legs and fussing with the baby’s blanket.

“Crayoning on each other” he admitted.

You rolled your eyes.

“D’ya think I’m a good dad?” he posed after a few moments of silence.

You looked up at his serious tone. He was looking at the baby, rather than you, and he had that expression that he usually reserved for when Tommy was giving him a dressing down.

“Wouldn’t have kids with you if I didn’t, you muppet” you reassured him.

“No, but…am I?” he pushed.

“Yes, John” You reached out your free hand to pull his chin up towards you “You’re a good dad. These kids adore you. I adore you”

“They adore the man who runs the bloody sweet shop” he argued, eyes still searching.

“That man doesn’t keep them fed and clothed and loved, though, does he? He doesn’t know which teddy is their favourite and what story to read them. He would probably shout at them if they coloured in his books, not teach them business skills. He wouldn’t buckle Katie’s new red shoes for her and race the boys down the street and back. He might let them win sometimes, though”

“Arthur never let me win and it made a man of me” he nodded solemly.

“You keep telling yourself that, honey” you scrunched your nose at him and he smiled a little. That soft little smile that made you forget just who your husband was, what he did. These moments here, with you and him, and your babies. In the warmth of your room, the softness of your sheets, the touch of his skin.

“I never had a good dad. That’s how you’re meant to learn isn’t it?”

You hummed at his assertion. “You had Arthur, and Tommy. Nevermind, I take both those names back”.

He laughed at you again and sat up to take the baby off you when she finished feeding. He picked her up, lay her up to his shoulder, and rubbed her back, pecking kisses at her ear.

“Polly said you got sacked” he continued, and you let your head drop back against the cushion.

“Bloody Polly”

“Don’t let her hear you say that”

You waved him off and perched your elbow on the bed frame, resting your head against your fist.

“My boss was being a prick, nothing new”

John didn't seem convinced, and eyed you carefully, still moving the baby in a soft rock.

“What happened?”

“Did Pol not tell you?”

“Nah she just mentioned it’d happened in passing, told me to speak to you about it” he nodded towards you.

“He…” you sighed and passed John over a cloth as the baby spat all down his chest “accused me of stealing from him to finance my lavish crime lifestyle and pay for all my disgusting little sprogs and whatnot. You know how he is, you’ve heard me complain”

John's head picked up, his eyes hardening.

“He said that about you? About the kids?”

“Not verbatim but…”

John scowled at you, slinging the cloth over his shoulder and balancing the baby on his lap. “Verb, what?”

“Word for word, love”

“Oh”

“Yeah…you stick to numbers and I’ll teach the kids words, yeah?”

He smirked at you then pulled a face at your daughter, making her giggle and slap her hands out at his face.

“She’ll be a boxer with a swing like that” he asserted.

He pulled her up so they were face to face.

“You gonna knock Arthur on his arse, eh princess? Or what about mummy’s boss?”

“I already did that” you dropped in, hoping to be casual about it.

“What? You hit him?”

You pulled your eyebrows up and together and fixed him with a look.

“You think I let him get away with speaking about us like that? Me, I might have just told him to piss off but he brought my kids and my man into this, I ain’t having that” He smiled back at you again “I might have big words in my head but I still got dragged up round here and my fists work just fine”

“That’s my girl!”

“Anyway the supervisor kindly asked me to leave the building and never return. I had to step over the snoozing prick to get there” you let a smile pull onto your face as you remembered the shocked faces you'd passed during your exit.

He laughed and stood to rock the baby who by now was fussing against him, tired out and fighting sleep.

“I’ll go round tomorrow” he decided.

You bent your head, warning. “Don’t, John”

“He doesn’t get away with that”

“He didn’t. I think the crack in his cheekbone set him pretty fucking straight, don’t you?”

John shook his head. “No, this is a family thing. We need to send a proper message, you don’t fuck with the Peaky Blinders”

“Johnny…please. There are other girls who work there, nice ones, they don’t need a group of you all going in and fucking their shit up just cos they happen to work for a prick with a big mouth. You know how many girls in this city work for pricks with big mouths? All of ‘em”

He frowned. “Hey, we employ women”

“Yeah, I counted them fucking first”

He huffed, laying the baby down in their basket and sorting them out before he walked back over and flopped across the bed.

“Speaking of employing women…”

You crawled over to him, planting yourself on his lap and tracing patterns down his chest.

“You asking me for a job?”

“Well I didn’t bother myself in coming over here for the view, did I now honey?”

You gave a play slap to his cheek, and he planted a proper one on your thigh, his hand working its way round to grab at your arse.

“I have extensive experience, most recently I vacated a position at the prestigious Holbort company-“ you began your speech.

He grabbed at the back of your neck, pulling you down to him for a kiss and held you tight to his chest so he could turn your over onto your back, giggling into him the whole way.

“Shut up already, you know you’re already bloody hired” he murmured into your skin.

“Oh, if I knew all I had to do was fuck my way in I could’ve been at Tommy’s desk years ago”

“Oi!”

“No…fucking you so I could get in and then- not fucking…you idiot, I swear, your face!”

“You said-“

“I meant fuck my way in and then work my way up to being the boss myself, that’s what I meant”

“It’s not what you said” he raised his eyebrows.

“It’s what I…me and Tommy, really, John? Really. Now who’s telling jokes?”

“Don’t joke about it”

“Ok, I’m sorry, mea culpa. A bloody decade and you still can’t handle me, I swear” you rolled your eyes.

He sniffed. “I handle you just fine”

“Ehhhh….” you shrugged.

“We’ve got 4 bloody kids, I handle you just fine”

“That’s an indication of nothing other than you’re a persistent bastard” you argued, with a soft smile.

“It’s an indication that you’re a horny little-“

“Muuuummmmm!”

John dropped his head to your chest and you dropped yours to the bed in turn.

“5 bloody minutes, that’s all I ask” he whispered.

“Maybe if you hadn’t got 4 bloody kids in me, you’d have that” you reminded him with a soft pat to his scalp.

He lifted his head enough to scowl at you.

“I remember you being pretty enthusiastic at the time”

“Yeah, well, I-“

“Muuuummmm!” they called again.

“They’re asking for you” he nodded towards the door.

He planted a string of kisses down your stomach and crawled off the bed so you could get passed him.

You swung the door open and shouted down the corridor. “What?”

“Katie’s being a bitch to me!”

You were about to storm off down the corridor but before you could two things happened.

The first, the sound of Katie’s shriek and then a firm slap, followed by your son crying out.

And the second, John storming past you shouting about ‘not using those words in my fucking house’.

You leant back against the door frame, looking over to where the baby was chewing on their blanket and smiled.

You turned back when you heard a commotion, John stepping out of the kid’s room with one of your sons backwards over his shoulder, another hanging upside down at his side, and Katie toddling after with her teddy in hand.

“Right, they’re staying with us tonight. Can’t bloody trust any of ‘em” he insisted, marching like he was back in uniform.

“Mummy told me if a man is using a bad word to me, I get to hit them” your daughter argued, head held high.

“That’s not quite what I said, honey” you shook your head.

“Well it’s what you meant” she shrugged.

John sighed, turning over his shoulder to motion to your daughter. “Katie, get in here, will you?”

“But daddy, aunt Polly said if a man doesn’t treat me like a lady, I am allowed to defend myself and I think-“

“Katty, put your claws back in and do what your father tells you for once in your little life, yeah hun? For mummy, please?”

She stared up at you, clutching the teddy to her chest, and sighed heavily with all of her tiny body.

“Are you going to stay with us now?” she asked.

“What else did Aunt Pol tell you?”

She shuffled on her little feet. “That you wouldn’t be going to the offices anymore. That daddy would get you a job here”

You looked to John as he picked your son up from where he was trying to free drive off the bed frame and throw him back against the mattress.

“Don’t look at me, you know Pol. She’s worse than bloody Tommy”

You nodded back to your daughter. “I’m going to be closer to home for now, yeah”

“Good” She turned to enter the bedroom, going over to fuss at the baby’s side “There’s too many silly boys here”

John marched over, picked her up, and swung her over his shoulder, spinning round. She shrieked in laughter and swung her arms out, like doing cartwheels in the air.

“Too many silly boys, eh?” He stopped and swung her down to his chest, “Too many silly boys?!”

“Not you daddy!”

“Yeah, better not mean me” He planted a big kiss on the side of her head, peering up at you over the top of her hair, smiling together.

“Right, all of you, in the bed” You commanded.

You stepped in and pulled the door closed behind you, shutting the world out and crawling into bed with them all.

These moments here, with you and him, and your babies. In the warmth of your room, the softness of your sheets, the touch of his skin.


End file.
